Medieval Medicine

• Medicine in the Middle Ages was very basic. Ancient ideas were still very prominent and the church was highly influential in every aspect of life.

  Scientific ideas were ignored for religious ones, whilst there were many problems with surgery, public health and fighting disease. The Black Death meanwhile would kill roughly 40% of England’s population.
• Hippocrates (Ancient Greece)

  •The most famous Greek doctor, he discovered the Theory of the Four Humours.

  •If the humours were in balance you were healthy, if they were out of balance you were ill.

  •Hippocrates also placed emphasis on the importance of observation.

  •His ideas were highly influential for over 1500 years.
• Galen (Ancient Rome)

  •The most renowned of the Roman doctors, Galen built on the work of Hippocrates.

  •He developed the Theory of the Opposites and also aimed to improve public health.

  •Galen completed public experiments on pigs and wrote books to pass on his work.

  •The church then preserved this.
• The Medieval Church

  The medieval church was highly influential, playing a major role in every aspect of people’s lives, including medicine.
• Ways the church helped medicine

  •The church passed on and preserved knowledge through books and libraries, keeping ancient and Arab works.

  •The church acted as hospitals, helping to treat the sick.

  •The church set up universities, medical schools and supported education.

  •Monks and friars often acted as doctors, treating the sick.
• Ways the church hindered medicine

  •The church insisted that spiritual ideas always outranked scientific ones.

  •They believed that God and religion were the cause and cure of disease.

  •Their main treatment was prayer and they promoted ideas such as pilgrimage.

  •The church controlled ideas and stopped scientists such as Roger Bacon from sharing their ideas.

  •The church limited dissection, stopping new discoveries being made.
• Medieval Medicine: Key Points

  Causes

  •They did not know what caused disease at this time.

  •Many thought that illness was God’s punishment.

  •Other religious and spiritual causes were popular too.

  •The humours being out of balance was still believed.

  •Some blamed animals and dirty conditions.
• Medieval Medicine: Key Points

  Treatments

  •Treatments were very limited and largely unsuccessful.

  •Religious treatments such as prayer were most popular.

  •Herbal remedies were frequently used.

  •Basic operations such as setting broken bones would take place.

  •They would try to re-balance the humours
• Medieval Medicine: Key Points

  Doctors

  •There were very few proper doctors or surgeons.

  •There were some barber surgeons, who had little training and would carry out basic operations.

  •Monks and nuns acted as doctors in church hospitals, offering spiritual cures.

  •Women provided care at home, playing a major role in this.
• Medieval Public Health


  • Poor living conditions
  • Lack of hygiene
  • High death rates
  • Low life expectancy
• Housing in medieval villages

  • Poor standard
• Medieval towns


  • Dirty
  • Squalid
• Problems in medieval towns

  • Animals roaming the streets
  • No proper toilets
  • Polluted water
  • Rife disease
• Poor living conditions and lack of hygiene


  Disease would spread quickly, leading to many epidemics
• The worst epidemic was the Black Death
• The government did very little to improve public health at the time
• There were some minor attempts to clean up streets in some towns and help to tackle disease
• The Black Death

  What: A devastating 14th century pandemic

  When: Arrived in England in 1348

  Where: Started in South East Asia, arrived in Europe in 1345, spread across Europe

  Caused by: They did not know. We know fleas on rats.

  Treatments: They had many, mostly spiritual and supernatural, none worked.

  Death Toll: Roughly 40% of England’s population. Up to 50-60% in towns.

  Impact: Everyone affected, new job opportunities, showed lack of medical understanding.
• Medieval Surgery

  •Surgery was very limited and basic in the Middle Ages and full of problems.

  •There were no anaesthetics or antiseptics, so pain, infection and blood loss were all major issues.

  •Surgeons had very little training and there was a lack of proper doctors. Any surgery that took place was simple and dangerous.

  •Hospitals were in churches, which instead suggested spiritual cures for illness.

  •Consequently success rates were low and death rates were high.
• John Arderne: Medieval Surgeon (1307-1392)

  •John Arderne was an English surgeon and one of the first to devise actual cures during the Middle Ages.

  •By the standard of medieval surgeons, Arderne was highly successful with a success rate of roughly 50%.

  •Arderne tried to use more natural methods rather than spiritual methods, using herbal ingredients such as opium and hemlock as a form of anaesthetic.

  •Arderne treated both the rich and poor, whilst many of his ideas and treatments are still in use today.